Dr. Manoj Kumar

The doctor who take care of mental health care of poor people...

 

Nearly decade ago Dr. Manoj Kumar left his psychiatric practice in the United Kingdom. After he flew back to his mother land of India. After he came to the India his goal was to address the mental health conditions of the peoples who lives in the rural areas in India.

Kerala has a history of getting involved social issues. He was the psychiatrist in the UK for about 15 years. When he decided to come back to India he was getting involve with community of Kerala. He could see that the government are not conducted enough programs to take of mental illness and realized that a family like model need to be adopted to bring about a change.

Because of these factors Dr.Manoj Kumar thought to found mental health action trust (MHAT) in 2008 in Kozhikode. It is an organizations that works on a decentralized model to provide mental health care to people who lives in the rural areas in India.

At the core of Dr.Manoj model is the use of task shifting to break down the roll that a traditional psychiatrist plays and identify part that a trained and well supported volunteer can work over in MHAT resources in community such  as palliative are or primary health care centers. Where there are existing cadres of nonprofessional works.

Leveraging technology other experts in the field and the spirit of volunteers among the peoples. He has created a free comprehensive community based and volunteer led mental healthcare system to cater to the most economically backward groups of society.In present he has trained thousands of peoples as a volunteers who are take care about others mental health care.

Over the last decade mental health care has become a famous talking point among majority of the people. There is logistical and geographical barriers that exist with patients having to travel long distance to access psychiatric treatment because of this most of the poor people unable to get treatments. Also a majority of the limited number of trained medical professionals are clustered in urban areas. Because of these factors he think to found MHAT. While doing his diploma in psychology medicine Dr. started to get a border understanding of psychology through his experience in working with palliative and cancer patients and their mental health.

There is barriers were especially apparent when it came to the treatments of the lowest strata of society. Where the severally mentally ill from the poorest of families in India. His goal was to find a solution to help those who are completely forgotten in an already inefficient systems get access to quality and comprehensive mental health care whenever they needed.

In over the year 4500 patients treated in the only Kerala.now a day’s Dr Manoj is digitizing the certification and training process of volunteers to be able to quickly and efficiently decentralize his MHAT service.In India he called as Doctor who take care of the mental healthcare of the poor people.